I am afraid formulating the question as "is on line education effective" or "more/les effective than F2F education" is an unfortunate simplification. Irrespective of the milieu where they take place, education or instruction can be more or less effective depending on a variety of factors, including among others instructors and learners' talents, willingness, readiness, attraction for the subject, interaction, etc. in addition to the material constraints and particular circumstances of the participants. An illustration of the above can be seen in the PhD dissertation of Andrea Brandão Lapa, A formação criticia do sujeito na educação a distança (the critical formation of the subject in distance education) IPPUR/URRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2005. In Portuguese. Michel Menou -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.3/445 - Release Date: 11/09/2006